Westfield (WDC)

Westfield Group
produced a strong third-quarter update with its US shopping malls performing well despite some softness in Australia and New Zealand. Analysts were heartened by the change in mix of the development book with Westfield’s share of work in progress around the world as its partners took on more of the burden, resulting in higher third-party fees and return on equity, Moelis & Co noted. The analyst said there was a trend for Westfield to increase third-party fees by developing for external owners. It tipped that Westfield would look to introduce additional capital partners on projects around the world. This may see the group cut back to 50 per cent in projects and also look for fresh partners as it had done recently in the UK. It could also undertake design and construction work as it will on the two centres that AMP Capital is developing in Australia. The shopping centre giant trades a forward dividend yield of about 4.7 per cent.